First and Only Monastery in ALD Blessed by Father Soc

from http://rcald.org/?p=583

by Frans Vergel Manaois

At last, the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan (ALD) has now its own monastery.

Said to be the first and only in ALD, the Poor Clare Monastery of Saint James the Apostle located at Brgy. Nanacapian, Malasiqui, Pangasinan was inaugurated on January 21, 2012 through a Eucharistic Celebration, Ribbon Cutting and Inaugural Blessing Rites. The mass and the blessing was presided over by Most. Rev. Socrates B. Villegas, Archbishop of  Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan, with other priests as concelebrants. The cutting of the  ribbon was done by Pangasinan’s 3rd District Representative Ms. Rachel Arenas assisted by her mother, who donated the land for the monastery. This event was attended by hundreds of faithful including clergy, nuns, benefactors, and lay people from the different parishes of ALD, and guests from the province of Bataan, where Villegas was previously assigned as bishop.

The said monastery was inaugurated to serve as the house of religious contemplative nuns who will pray for the sanctification of priests and to offer their hidden sacrifices to sustain the church mission for the world.

“This monastery is the powerhouse of (our active ministry in) the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan,” Villegas said in his homily.

The lone monastery was constructed due to the dire need foreseen by Villegas of the presence of a monastery of contemplative nuns, which had been absent until the said inauguration, in the archdiocese. Upon his appointment as ALD’s archbishop on November 2009, the erection of a religious contemplative monastery in the archdiocese is “one of the very first concerns I attended to,” he said in his circular letter.

The blessing also became an opportunity for the people present to see the interior of the monastery which was “built by the concerted effort of the Catholic faithful of Pangasinan,” the archbishop acknowledged.

The newly blessed monastery is located in a southern barangay of Malasiqui, Pangasinan. From the town proper, it will take a 20-minute ride using a private vehicle or a tricycle, which is the most common public transportation in the place. It (monastery) is under the jurisdiction of the Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish (OMPHP) of Canan Norte, Malasiqui, Pangasinan and currently under the pastoral care of Rev. Fr. Democrito Umagtam, OMPHP’s Parish Priest.

Daily mass is said in the monastery by which everyone can participate.

click to enlarge

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